• Ai Seon Kuan, Tzeng-Ji Chen, and Wui-Chiang Lee.
• Institute of Public Health, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
• J Chin Med Assoc. 2020 Jan 1; 83 (1): 95-101.

BackgroundWhile migrants in Taiwan are entitled to universal health care, barriers to health care services exist. We aimed to explore challenges encountered by migrants when accessing health care services and potential strategies to overcome these barriers.MethodsInvitations to participate in the study were sent to all hospitals, 12 migrant organizations, one language school, and one language service company in Taiwan, and convenience sampling was used to recruit study participants. Focus group interviews were held with 111 migrants, clinicians, migrant organization coordinators, and representatives from the medical institutions, language school and language service company. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed using a thematic approach.ResultsThe study participants acknowledged that the current support system for migrants in the health care sector is inadequate. Barriers to health care services were noted in three areas - language and information, sociocultural and economic, and policy and resources. Potential strategies to overcome these barriers included the provision of on-site or distant interpreting services, provision of multilingual instruction notes and forms, and establishing a multilingual medical assistance hotline.ConclusionWhile migrants benefit from the current support and welfare system, our study found substantial gaps that need to be filled including a lack of professional medical interpreters and training programs, a lack of legal framework for medical interpreting, and inadequacy in the dispersal of information on existing resources that may facilitate the integration of migrants into society and the health care system. Overcoming these barriers may improve migrants' access to health services.

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